Looking to purchase a new pistol (not a debate)

When people talk about bear protection, they almost always suggest big revolvers.

True, they very rarely fail, and do damage per round. 

15-9mm rounds fired quickly into important parts is going to stop him or make him a non- combatant. 

I can do that with my 9. Takes time to re-establish the target with my big bores. And 8 is the limit on mine. 

I consider myself quite a good pistol shot - however only in the sense of stationary target shooting, not IPSC (practical shooting) etc which I want to learn or, obviously given where I live, the scenario of a bear charging me. So take from this whatever value you feel it's worth or can be gained.

The key with shooting accurately (and this applies to everything; rifles, airguns, even airsoft) is trigger control. Whenever you learn a new skill the person passing on a bunch of advice will list a number of things - and then later on down the line you'll usually find out what was truly the most important thing to emphasize. To save you a lot of unnecessary work, in regards to shooting accurately it's trigger control, and it's something that's exacerbated even more with handguns.

The critical factor is in eliminating the "flinch". This isn't so much fear of a bang or recoil etc (a person that flinches on real steel will also flinch on an air pistol), but more your own brain making a decision in a split second to 'do something now' (shoot) and then anticipating something (recoil) happening. Kinda like playing snap with a deck of cards.

Instead what you essentially need to do is calm everything down and remove yourself (the human decision on when to shoot) from the equation. And the best of way of doing this is to gently apply pressure to the trigger and not know when the firearm is going to discharge - that way your brain can't interfere with the process. Once you get this down you can pick up speed but the baseline starts with that. 

People often think you have to grip tight and do all this extra stuff, and for practical shooting (or a bear attack) that may be true. But again in terms of shooting accurately from a stationary position alone it really doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if you're limp wristing so bad that the gun won't even cycle properly. That 9mm etc is out of the barrel so fast that anything that subsequently happens recoil wise is irrelevant to the projectile itself.

Practice, practice,practice. Also take a professional shooting course first so you don't develop bad habits and they will have you shoot from lots of different positions and also a stress shooting course is great also.  

Congratulations on your purchases.  I like both guns.  The RedHawk is a classic! 

Do/Did you have an opportunity to shoot them?  I ask only because you might be a bit surprised by the snappiness of the Glock.  I have a G36 (45ACP) which is very snappy and takes some getting used to.  I bought that gun with intention of it becoming my CC go to, but have since moved over to 380ACP for that purpose.

Also, a few things on semiautos that have not been mentioned.  Failure to feed and stove piping.  If you shoot enough semiauto you know exactly what I mean.  Before you trust your life to any gun, make sure you put a ton of rounds into it at the range.  Figure out which brand and configuration of round your gun loves, and stay away from the ones that it doesn't.  Otherwise, your 10mm with the 35 round banana clip and 220 grain hard cast "Bear Killer" rounds can quickly become an expensive set of "brass" knuckles.  

I just got back from a Yellowstone trip and went thru the same debate prior to the leaving. I shoot a lot, so I decided on a 10mm as well, Sig XTEN in fact.  I liked the 15 controlled shots idea over the revolver, as many guides in Alaska have switched to 10mm as well.  That being said, I also carry Bear Spray. The problem with bear spray is that if it's a grizzly and its stalking you or protecting offspring, there is a chance they'll come back.  Not to mention you have to consider wind, brush, etc. Plenty of data shows even grizzlies have been killed by "small bore", even down to 9mm, in self defense hiking situations. There is also plenty of data that shows Bear Spray is very effective.  I feel safer carrying both....  10mm in a chest rig and Bear Spray on my hip.

As to tips, learn proper grip technique first. I understand "do what's comfortable", but some people have natural habits that really hinder recoil control and are hard to break.  I took my wife to a range several times prior to our trip to use their moving targets. They have machines that run your target (I drew a grizzly bear head on it) out to 40 yards and then it "charges" at you. It's supposed to be training for officers but does mimic a similar situation of a grizzly running at you....minus the extreme fear and adrenaline and crapping your pants!  It does however, show how much harder it is to change point of aim/point of impact from 40ft to 3ft on a moving target.  Its harder to adjust on the fly than you think and you have to aim lower when closer because the bulletdynamics/trajectory. Do some experiments and research on that.  I didn't tell my wife it would move towards her and she did terrible on the first try, only got off 3 shots before she realized what was happening and missed all of them!  Great surprise training moment. She improved massively by the end of the day. For reference, she carries a full size duty pistol in .45 ACP with proper ammo (do NOT use hollowpoint +p self defense rounds). For grizzly or even black bear we are looking for deeper penetration, NOT expansion. She couldn't handle the snap of the 10mm as well and that FNX-45 is smooth as butter.

To that end, look into monolithic bullets over hard cast.  Glocks can lead foul pretty bad and have a few other barrel issues from running hard cast bullets. Underwood makes great "Bear ammo" but make sure it runs in your gun well! https://www.brownells.com/ammunition/handgun-ammunition/xtreme-penetrat…

Lastly, just remember to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Deadly bear encounters are rare, but as more humans enter these wild spaces, predators will become more accustomed to us thus increasing the likelihood of an encounter....and you need to be ready!

Dumb question from the guy on the wrong side of the 49th, but why a handgun? Have spent a fair bit of time in some wilder places in my days and hell, my parents literally live in a cabin in the bush, handguns aren't common up here but even back in the 70's and 80's when they were easier to get, everybody up there preferred shorter barrel rifles/carbines and large gauge shotguns. More accurate, more stopping power, and inside that critical 5 yard zone, a far better melee weapon.  You don't have to kill it, just make it run away, right?

Pistol correction targets. 

Yeah, all fair points for sure, especially the less conspicuous and harder to pack part.

My old man used to pack an old 303 while fishing. Once he was sitting on a rock fishing in this stream like usual when he feels something brush up against him, looks to his right and there's this grizzly cub sitting down beside him checking out his lunch and the couple of graylings he's caught. Rifle was the only thing he grabbed when he hightailed it outta there, left his lunch, fish and his fishing rod, bears ate okay that day! They love coffee too, turns out, they drank his.

People have stopped grizzly bears with 9mm makarov. Not sure why this huge debate on cartridge is up.

Find something comfortable you like that is within your needs that isn’t overbearing to shoot.

This is what I have been saying. 

I'm not here to brag, I'm just saying that I spend a lot of time shooting. 

Rifle, no one is safe.

Pistol, I like a double stack, but I bet I get you early. 

Elephants and Grizzlies have also been killed with a 22.  As the saying goes, ymmv.  

Whatever gun you end up with you need to shoot a lot more. You need a holster that you can get your gun out of and get going quickly and smoothly. That will take a lot of dry work. You can get bulk ammo at targetsportsusa.com

Also the ability to get it out and pointed in the right direction is much faster when you only have fractions of a second to begin with.

I’m a little late to the thread, but the most important part of buying a handgun is the grip feel. Pick up the gun and immediately point it at an imaginary target. If you’re 15 degrees off to the sides or top/bottom, put it down and pick another. The gun should feel very natural to point, such that when you draw and aim you don’t need to think about squaring the sites. 
 

My biggest complaint with Glock is the grip. The blackstrap is super square and swells out at the bottom, so when I draw any Glock it’s pointing way off to the left. Great guns otherwise. The best natural grip pistols I’ve found are the hk v and vp series with the adjustable grips. 

Agreed, I'm always barrel tip high when I just "grab" a Glock 20 off the table. Not a good way to start from the draw.  Good grip is critical, find what fits you the best.

Well, the debate comes from the fact that you CAN kill a grizzly with a 9mm, but it's less likely and requires much better shot placement. My grandfather used to drop cows with a 22 revolver. But he had to be right on top off it, and I don't think I want a grizzly to get that close!  As in right through the brain stem at a soft spot. It's always going to be hard to stop a raging grizzly, so I prefer full size duty pistol in 10mm with big mags. FN has a new 20+ round magazine 10mm, buts its really expensive!

Like others have said, practice a LOT, both shooting and drawing from carry. I used a chest rig from Amazon that made it easy to reach when hiking.  It seems like always have my hands on my backpack straps, and the chest rig was right there beside them.

As to carrying a rifle, yeah that would be best, but I couldn't really do that in Yellowstone.  On my own property, that might work, but we don't have bear here to worry about...